Confusion as Mandela spends 7th day in hospital

As the 94-year-old patriarch of South Africa’s democracy entered his seventh day of hospitalisation yesterday for a recurring lung infection, confusion grew as the government appeared to contradict itself over where he is being treated.

Journalists yesterday saw a convoy of presidential security cars and an ambulance pass through South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, but the government refused to confirm that Mandela had been moved from hospital.

With the government refusing to say where Mandela is, concern grew across the nation of 50 million people about the health of the anti-apartheid icon.

Mandela, admitted Saturday to a hospital, was thought to have been at 1 Military Hospital near Pretoria after Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said she visited the leader there Monday. But when local media reported that Mandela wasn’t at that hospital Thursday night, presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj refused to give the whereabouts of the ailing politician.

“Ex-President Mandela is being treated at a Pretoria hospital as said from the first statement we issued,” Maharaj said. “We have refrained from disclosing the hospital in order to ensure privacy and also to allow doctors space to do their work of caring for (him) without interruptions or undue pressure.”

It was not immediately clear if Mandela had been moved or if he had been at a different facility during his entire seven-day hospitalisation, his longest since 2001, when he underwent radiation therapy after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.

On Monday, addressing journalists after her visit, Mapisa-Nqakula said: “We confirm that former President Mandela is in (the) hospital, 1 Military Hospital, and he’s doing very, very well.”